Stripers of the Merrimack - Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating

#8Striper · 06-11-2002, 05:45 PM

HI there I'm a newbie to the board and I think it is great!!
But doesn't seem like many folks here fish the Merrimack with me.
I have had some great luck there so far although it is yet to heat up to where it was a few years ago. Last Tuesday we had 3 keepers all 28" and about 30 schoolies till the hearing ran out.
I heard that all the big fish where outside the mouth, but the water was a bit tough out there form my little bath tub.
If anybody is fishes that area please tell me where I go go to catch some little macs, hopefully not 6 miles out..lol
Also how is everyone else doing in the river

gf2020 · 06-11-2002, 09:08 PM

Try the Hampton Shoals Ledge. This is about 1 mile offshore from Seabrook station. Head north out of the Merrimack and go up the coast a few miles. You will probably see other boats anchored out there too. I don't have the GPS coordinates handy, but check on your chart.

#8Striper · 06-14-2002, 06:52 AM

Thanks very much for the Info about the Macs ... we went out yesterday and found "Broken Rock" where several boats were jigging. We had a very tough time of it there only caught 1 mac .. but several pollack ..lol When we asked other fisherman who seemed to be having more luck than us it seemed that they all had "chum buckets" out and they felt that made the difference.
Do you think it does? ... Well next time then.

The rest of the day was spent fishing the high tide and the out going tide. After drifting in from the mouth to the salsbury river we caught a 24" on hearing. (My buddy was feeling a bit under the weather after being out after the macs ... lol)

Once he was feeling better we headed back to the mouth and had a little luck but no big fish.

The rest of the out going tide we struggled. We moved to my favorite spot ..the #8 of course but again few fish ...
Ever had one of those days when you felt like this was your first time stripper fishing .. even though you have been going regularly for 10 years ... that seems to describe how my day went yesterday ... lost rigs, broken off fish, tangled lines, small infrequent fish .... ahhhh well it beet working!